1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus that mainly controls a powertrain device of a vehicle, and a method of suppressing vibration of a vehicle, which reduces vibration on a spring of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2004-168148 describes a vehicle control apparatus for suppressing vibration of a vehicle. The vehicle control apparatus uses, as an instruction, a physical quantity corresponding to at least one of accelerator pedal operation, steering operation, and brake operation performed by a driver, and controls at least one of an engine and a brake according to the instruction. To suppress vehicle vibration, the vehicle control apparatus uses a movement model relating to vibration to correct the instruction input by the driver. That is, at least one of vertical vibration and/or torsional vibration caused by road surface reaction, which is applied to tires, vibration under a spring of a suspension, and vibration on the spring of the suspension, which is applied to a vehicle body itself.
However, in a conventional vehicle control apparatus, only a single movement model is used to correct the instruction input by the driver. Therefore, in a vehicle where the running characteristic can be changed according to the intention of the driver or the like, a conventional vehicle control apparatus may not be able to adequately suppress the vehicle vibration. Also, in the case where the instruction input by the driver is corrected using the single movement model as described above, the vehicle vibration may not be effectively suppressed if the environment around the vehicle or the running condition of the vehicle changes.